Changing Colors
by KKLSBones
Summary: Kendel Haulder is many things: an awkward teen, an overbearing sister, avid Space Heroes fan, an average student, and an animal lover. But can she handle being mutated into a reptilian-"FREAK SHOW! Look at me! Look at my eyes! What are they doing! They're not supposed to do that! I can't wear glasses anymore! I can't see anything! WHAT DO I DO!" ... Only time will tell.


_**(A/N: I know, I know. I'm horrible. Starting another story when I already have two that I need to do. Pfft. Terrible. But shush... I'll probably never finish this one either.)**_

"Alright Scruffy." I cooed, setting the bright green lizard on his perch and running a pale finger down the ridges on his back. "I gotta go to school, but I'll be back soon." A small grin worked its way onto my face as I placed my hand onto the screen lid, propping it open. I lowered my face down to the creature's level and I watched as both of his eyes swiveled around before one rested on me, the other focusing on one of the crickets seated in the cage's corner. "You be good, okay?" At that moment Scruffy decided to whip out his tongue and instead of aiming at the insect he let it slip through the small opening between the screen and the tank and smack me right in the face. Jerking back I brought my hands up and wiped at the saliva furiously, making a disgusted noise as I did so. The lid fell back into place and I fiddled with the little clasp on the front, being sure to keep it locked.

"Gee, thanks. I just got done washing. I guess I must have missed a spot. You know this never comes off. Stupid little... ugh." I grumbled, just a bit irritated at his actions. Grabbing my bag I tossed it over my shoulder and headed towards my bedroom door. After swinging it open I bid my beloved pet goodbye and closed it gently. Then, just as I was about to lock it, a small form rammed into my side and nearly succeeded in knocking me over in the process. Clasping my bag to my chest I stared down at the small boy now lying on the floor, eyes closed and his tongue poking out. "Eli, I don't have time for this right now." I sighed, poking him in the side with my foot. This caused him to giggle quietly, indicating that I had located his ticklish spot. I'll have to remember that for later. Removing my foot I watched as he fixed his face into a plain expression, his lips twitching at the sides.

"Can't hear you, I'm dead." he croaked out, reaching a hand up to grab at my pants' leg before he let it fall back to his chest as his head flopped to the side. The other hand came up and he pressed the back of it to his forehead in mock misery. "Oh, woe is me. If only someone would take the time... to... to... watch Space Heroes... with... with me. Blargh." He allowed himself to collapse back onto the ground, hand twitching for effect.

"I can't right now, I have to go to school." I informed him, stepping over his body and making my way over to the door. I would have made it to, if he hadn't of grabbed onto my leg. I was now dragging him to the apartment entrance and try as I might I could not shake him off. The boy was like a snake when it came to wrapping his arms around objects and never letting go until he succeeded in getting what he so wanted. "Eli." I scolded. "Now is not the time. And I have work today at four."

"Keeeeeeeeennnnnnnnyyyyyyyy." he whined, pulling himself over so that my leg was now pressed to his chest. "Pleeeeeease? Just take a sick day!"

"I have tests today." I groaned, "And as much as I would love to play hooky and watch Captain Ryan smack around his lieutenant with you, I have to go. Hey..." I paused, looking down at his pleading gray eyes. "Shouldn't you be dressed too? Why are you in your pjs?"

"Why would I be dressed?" he blinked, looking up at me in confusion.

"For school."

"Huh? But today's Teacher Work Day, we don't have school."

...

"You make the popcorn, I'm going to change into my pajamas."

"Yay!" he grinned widely before coming to a stand and dashing off towards the kitchen. I let out a small sigh and headed back to my room, opening the door. My lips twitched into a small grin when I saw that Scruffy had successfully caught and eaten all of the crickets and was now perched on his stick, both eyes fixed on me, he does this whenever he wants to be held-which is actually quite often. The spoiled thing. I walked towards my dresser, throwing off my casual clothing and pulling out my fuzzy pajama bottoms and baggy Space Heroes tee. After tugging those on I kicked my clothes over towards my bed before walking towards the glass tank. Lifting up the screen I lowered my hand to the reptile and allowed him to climb on, setting him on my shoulder after doing so.

Walking into the living room I found Eli already lying on his stomach on the floor, absentmindedly kicking his legs in the air with a large bowl of popcorn beside him. The colorful title sequence flashed across the screen and I plopped myself down on the carpet, reaching over and tossing some pieces of popcorn into the air. They came back down in an arch and hit the area around my opened mouth, none going in.

I frowned and a giggle sounded by my right. "Ah, shut it." I snipped, ruffling the boy's brown hair. He let out an annoyed yell and smacked my hands away before attempting to fix it. "Which episode is this?"

"It's the one where that cloaked chick bumps into Captain Ryan and Commander Grundch when they're surveying an alien planet and then leaves." he spoke, shoving a handful of buttery popcorn into his mouth while I groan. _**(A/N: Can you tell I made that episode up? Yes? Alrighty then... carry on.)**_

"Ugh, and then they spend like the ENTIRE episode wondering who she is but then they never DO anything about it. The only upside is that Crankshaw gets slapped more than usual." I pouted, watching as the said cloaked figure literally runs into the two before totally disregarding them and continuing on her way. The two males then began to speak to each other, I blocked it out and instead let my head fall back and hit the couch behind me. Scruffy climbed onto the piece of furniture and I watched as his tongue whipped out and snatched up one of the fallen pieces of popcorn.

...

"I JUST fed you, young man."

/~/HOURS LATER/~/

"Alright, Donny, where's the mutagen?" Raph asked the purple banded turtle, gesturing around towards the empty back alley. It was completely desolate, save for a few trashcans and a dumpster, and a pile of garbage bags in one corner besides a stack of cardboard boxes. Donatello shook his head, eyeing the area around him with a look of confusion.

"I don't get it! The Tracker says that it's here." he said, looking down at the device in concentration. He then pointed a green finger towards the dumpster. "There!"

Mikey peeked into the metal bin and took a look around, holding his breath as he did so. His eyes began to water and he pulled away to gag dramatically. "DUDE! That's NASTY!"

"Mikey! SH!" Leo hissed and the younger turtle slapped a hand over his mouth and nodded. "It can't be any worse than the sewer."

"Duuuude, it smells WORSE than the sewers! On Taco Tuesday!" he squeaked from between his fingers. "It's full of grossy gross gross stuff!"

"Shell for brain's right, there's nothin' in here but... rotten food and... I don't know what that is." Raph piped up. "No sign of the mutagen either."

"But-but that can't be!" Donny insisted.

"Maybe it's busted." Mikey shrugged.

"Busted. Busted? It can't be 'busted', Mikey. I just-"

A high-pitched shriek interrupted the tall turtle's rant and a voice pierced the area. "I'M GOING TO BE LATE!" this was then followed by the sound of rapid footsteps and doors being opened and closed. The four brothers bolted from the scene silently when a young teen ran by one of the opened windows. She scrambled around for a while until slamming a green hat onto her head, it appeared to have a logo on it. She stopped and looked down to her clothing, groaning loudly before dropping the hat and disappearing for a while. She came back into view, hopping on one foot as she struggled to pull on her pants, having to tug hard so that she could fit it over the boxers. The girl ended up falling and Mikey laughed, Raph slammed a hand to his mouth and glared at the younger turtle who visibly shrank, Leo shook his head as Donny held a hand to his face. The window teen's head of brown hair popped up over the window sill and she looked around curiously, slowly coming to a stand and leaning herself out to get a better view.

"Hello?" she called out, reaching over her head and pulling her hair into a low pony tail. "Is that you Patty?"

...

The four turtles remained silent, eyeing each other until the window beside her popped open, revealing a rather disheveled looking girl with tangled blond hair.

"Whaaaaaat?" she groaned, rubbing her sleep-ridden eyes. This caused the other to do a double-take.

"Oh geeze! Did you just wake up?!"

"Yeeeees? Why?"

"We have WORK! Today! In like-" she leaned back, possibly to glance at a clock before leaning back out. "THIRTY minutes!"

...

"WHAT?!" she shouted, diving out of view. Clothes could be seen flying through the air in both windows. "Where are my pants?!"

"Oh, I don't know!" the brunette snapped, "Check around your waist!"

The blond's head poked out of the window and the turtles saw her look down then back up towards her friend's. "You win this one."

"Patty I think we got each other's hats!"

"We'll switch them out when we get there! Hurry up!"

"ME?! There's no way you can be done-" she stopped once she popped her head back out, her brown hoody around her shoulder and only one arm in a sleeve, glasses askew. She narrowed her eyes when she saw that Patty was already dressed and had her hair pulled back. "Did you even brush your hair?"

"Pfft, no."

"That's gross."

"You're gross."

"Your face is gross!"

"Just get your butt to the lobby!" she snipped, slamming her window shut.

"Aha! The mighty foe has been defeated once more! For I am good, and they are bad. Hah! I-" the window opened once more and the blond once again poked her head out, giving her now silent and blushing friend a pointed look.

"Were you just quoting Space Heroes?"

...

"Noooooooo." Patty only looked at her, hands on her hips and her mouth in a pout. "Alright, alright. Yes, so sue me."

"Why do you even like that show? It's... stupid." she said this while wiggling her fingers in a weird jester.

"Uh, says the girl who spends her nights watching Super Robot Mega Force Five."

...

"Touche, Kendel Haulder, touche."

The girls then shut their windows, the brunette keeping her cracked open just a tad and the two disappeared, allowing the turtles to come out of their hiding spots.

"That was close. Mikey." the red wearing turtle said pointedly, giving the younger ninja a look who then stuck out his tongue.

"And this is why we don't go out during the day." Leo spoke up, "Let's head back to the lair, we'll come back later when it's dark."

"It's HERE, I know it is, Leo!" Donny persisted. "It's probably just hidden."

"Well, if it's anythin' like Mikey's brains then it's gonna take a while to find."

"Hah, yeah." said turtle grinned widely before stopping and fixing Raph with a glare, "Hey!"

/~/MEANWHILE/~/

"Slow down!" Ken shouted, gripping onto her friend's shoulders tightly as the blond proceeded to pedal as fast as her legs would allow her. "I want to get there ALIVE!"

"Well we WON'T be if we're LATE! Boss will have us killed!" Patty yelled back, making a sharp right turn at a red light. Her feet were a blur as she raced by the cars, weaving the bike in and out of traffic, sometimes even going on the sidewalk. All the while she had a determined look on her face. Ken would loudly apologize to all of the people her friend cut off or nearly ran over, one of which happened to be a very familiar shades wearing man. "Yo, Mr. Murakami! On your left!" Patty shouted and the blind man took a step back as the two females whizzed by his shop. "We'll visit on our break, Mr. Murakami!" Ken threw back, waving at the man with one hand and clinging on for dear life with the other. The hand then went to grip at her helmet when the bike hit a bump and she yelped. "Patty! Be careful!"

"I'm always careful!" she laughed just as she went over a hill, at that moment she stopped pedaling and let gravity do the rest as she sailed down-dodging cars and pedestrians alike, earning some curses and shouts when she did so. Ken was screaming all the while and she clenched her eyes shut tightly. The bike came to a screeching halt and it skidded as it stopped right in front of a pizzeria. Ken fell off to the side, still in her seated position.

"Alright, Miss Drama Pants." Patty scoffed, getting off the bike and walking it to the rack, wrapping a chain around the front end and popping a number lock on it. "The 'Ride of Death' is over."

Ken pried her eyes open and she sat up, blinking rapidly. "Whattaya know, I survived." she mused and Patty whipped the helmet off of her head.

"Har har har." she laughed bitterly, holding the shop door open and allowing her friend to clamber to a stand and walk through. "Welcome to Antonio's Pizza Rama." she said lamely.

"There you two are!" a voice boomed suddenly from behind the counter. "Lucky you! Just a minute from being late."

"Yay." Patty said, twirling a finger in the air when Ken tossed an apron at her. She was about to put her own on when Antonio stopped her.

"Kendel, you're on delivery duty." he told her, causing the girl's eyes to widen.

"M-me?" she asked, pointing towards herself as he tossed the apron onto the counter and fixed her crooked hat so that it was now straight and sat there firmly before fixing the girl's wire framed glasses. He only nodded and handed her a slip of paper with her deliveries and addresses, he then gestured to the pizza carrier, already filled with the steaming hot pizzas. "Uh, but-"

"Just go already!" he shooed her off and out the door. "And don't get lost!"

"Take my bike!" Patty shouted after her.

Once she was gone she gave him a pointed look. "So, if SHE'S making deliveries then I'm assuming that Brandon's making pizzas?" the man nodded, wiping his brow with the back of his hand. "You've gone mad, you know that?"

"Oi, and what makes you say that?"

"You just sent a shy bundle of nerves and energy into New York City alone and gave her the task of delivering food alone to hungry and quite possibly angry strangers whom she doesn't know even though you know that she can't even work up the nerve to ask people for an extra packet of ketchup when she's on her own alone and has a tendency to freak out when I'm not there to keep her calm and she's alone. That, coupled with the fact that she's the best cook here-aside from yourself-and Brandon doesn't know a THING about making pizzas to save his life all add up to you losing some major denero."

He was silent for a few seconds before he slapped a hand to his face and groaned loudly. "What have I done?"

"A very, very stupid thing."

/~/LATER/~/

"H-hello? Pizza delivery!" Ken shouted at the wooden door in front of her as she held the boxes in her hands. If only Patty was here, then she wouldn't have a problem. And if anything happened she could count of the blond to be there for her. She heard light footsteps and threw a smile on her face, hoping that this person would be nicer than the last few, who had yelled at her and nearly made her cry. It wasn't her fault she was ONE-okay so maybe a few-minute(s) late. Thankfully the shop didn't have a lateness policy to follow or she'd be DEAD. She waited anxiously and she took a step back when the door opened to reveal a middle-aged man.

He looked her dead in the eye, not saying a single word as he stood there. Ken's smile slowly slid from her face as the encounter began to drag on. After a few agonizing seconds she decided to break the silence. "Pizza delivery for April O'Neil?" he shook his head once and slammed the door shut so hard that it shook the girl to her core.

"Oh! Uh, s-sorry! Wrong address sir." she stammered, "H-have a nice day-I mean night! Bye!" she hurried down the stairs and over towards the bike, which she had propped up against a streetlamp. "Where's April?" she had heard of the so-called 'Pizza Loving Girl' from Brandon who would often complain about how many pizzas he had to carry because of her.

"Over here!" a feminine voice called and Ken spun around, four boxes still in her grasp. She let out a sigh of relief. She walked over and handed the orange haired girl the food, the other handing over the money in exchange. "Sorry about the location there were some... problems."

"I-it's okay! I'm just glad I haven't been jumped yet." Ken nervously replied. "Usually someone else does this, it's my first time doing a delivery run. S-so-"

"You're nervous, that's normal." April told her, offering a friendly smile. "Don't worry, it happens to everybody." she stopped then looked towards the girl oddly. "Wait, what do you mean by getting 'jumped'?"

"O-oh! No, I don't mean to disrespect your neighborhood or anything!" she shook her head rapidly from side to side. "It's just there's been a lot of weird sightings lately."

"Like... what kind of sightings?"

"Just weird stuff. These guys in weird ninja get ups and... apparently they have multiple arms. I-I haven't seen them for myself but my friend says that she saw some running around the rooftops-but she usually stays up real late and she's always groggy."

"Oh. Anything else... weird?"

"Well, there's been some videos of some weird animals around New York but I think they're all fake. The only people who take them seriously are the alien fanatics." she shrugged then looked at her watch, eyes widening as she let out a shout. "OH! Sorry! But I gotta get going, maybe I'll see you later!"

"Uh, sure."

Ken made it back to the store shortly after, relieved to see that it was now time for her break. Patty greeted her warmly and the two of them walked out together, Ken insisted that the other girl pedal, saying that her legs were already killing her. This made Patty laugh and she nodded, mounting the bike and waiting for the girl to get on the pegs.

The ride to Murakami's was a short one, and when they got there he had already whipped up their regular meals. Patty eagerly plopped herself down in front of the chicken udon and began to sprinkle it with lots and lots of shichimi, meanwhile Ken sat down in front of the plate of chicken katsu and picked up a fork. Patty-after practically burying her food with spice-began to dig in with her chopsticks rather clumsily.

After Ken's first bite she smiled and told the blind man, "This is even better than last time, Murakami-san!"

Patty nodded enthusiastically, a few of the white noodles hanging from her full mouth before she swallowed them and said, "Are you ever going to give me the recipe?"

"Even if he did you'd make me make it." Ken pointed out, using her fork to emphasize.

"Eh, what can I say? I'm a lazy gal." she shrugged, causing the other girl to roll her eyes. "Oh! Murakami-san, Ken did her first delivery today!"

"Oh, really?" he asked, "That is very good Kendel!"

"I'm so proud of my little girl!" Patty cooed, wrapping her arm around her and squeezing.

"Little? I'm older than you." she laughed.

"By three months, and that's just biologically!"

"And by six years mentally." the old man piped in, causing Ken to giggle and Patty to frown, a faux hurt look on her face.

"Ouch, someone's a rude person." she sniffed. "I'm hurt, Murakami-san."

"Eat your udon, Patricia.~" Ken smirked, this made her friend pout.

"Don't call me that!" she whined.

After a few seconds Patty suddenly jerked her head upwards, "Hey, Murakami-san! Have you heard about those alien sightings?"

"Aliens?" he questioned, re-positioning his glasses. "Can you be more specific?"

"There's loads of pictures, all from New York! And I found this blog that's dedicated to all of the weird stuff that happens here! It's really cool."

"'Cool'? You mean 'scary'!" Ken shuddered. "Remember what Brandon told us a few months ago? About that man who lived in his apartment complex that kept shouting about 'kung-fu frogs'?"

The blond looked towards her friend with a look of complete and utter irritation.

"Oh no, I'm Ken. I'm afraid of frogs, boo hoo!" Patty sniffed and the other rolled her eyes.

"I'm not... afraid of them. Okay? They just... creep me out."

"But they're so cute!"

"Perhaps Kendel-chan is more partial to reptiles?" Murakami suggested.

"Yes, thank you!" she pointed, gesturing towards the man as the blond rolled her eyes.

At that moment the bell dinged loudly from the door, though neither of the girls paid much attention-both were too busy bickering with each other, waving their hands as they spoke and Patty eventually sprawled herself out across the table on her side of the booth. She was still trying to understand Kenny's 'obsession'-as she called it, her friend rather would just say she admired them-with... reptiles, to her they were gross and far too weird looking. But, perhaps with a little coaxing she believed that she could get her to join the Amphibian Side.

Mr. Marukami had turned when the bell went off and immediately offered a smile to the familiar footsteps.

"You're telling me that you'd prefer a scaly, hard, rough, smelly, old turtle over a cute, little, itty-bitty, frog?" she said this while propping her chin up with her hand, stirring what was left of her food around in her bowl.

"Yes, actually."

"Would you date the turtle?" she smirked and Ken's face flushed crimson. "Ah-ha! Look at your cheeks! They're so red!"

"W-what kind of question is that?" she stammered. "That's weird, Patty!"

"So's your taste in men.~" she teased.

"I-I don't like turtles like that! That's-wrong! Not to mention illegal in most states!"

Patty laughed, draping an arm across her shoulders and squeezing tightly. "I was just joking! See? Even Murakami-san thinks it's funny!" she pointed towards the man, who was now attempting to cover his laughter with a cough. His new companion on the other hand could only stand there awkwardly.

"Just-just hurry and eat your udon. It's getting dark out."

"Kenny's afraid of the kung-fu frogs.~"


End file.
